1,000 schools get OK to raise tuition

Over 1,000 private elementary and high schools across the country had been given the green light to increase their tuition for the coming school year, according to the Department of Education (DepEd).

In a press briefing on Thursday, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the request of 1,013 private schools to raise their tuition has been approved in accordance with the DepEd guidelines on regulations for private schools in basic education.

The figure represented 8 percent of the total number of private schools nationwide or 219 schools less than those that increased their tuition last school year.

Metro Manila accounted for the most number of schools that will increase their tuition for school year 2017-2018, with 183; followed by Davao, with 154 schools; Central Luzon, with 104 schools; and Bicol region, with 101 private elementary and high schools.

In Caraga, only two schools will raise their fees this year, according to the DepEd.

Briones said majority of these private schools were small, faith-based schools that needed to augment their teachers’ salaries.

She said their requests had been approved since the schools had indicated that 70 percent of the proceeds from the tuition hike would be allotted for the salary increase of their faculty and other personnel as specified under the DepEd guidelines on tuition fees.

“We have this provision that 70 percent of the increase has to go to the salary of teachers because the disparity of the income between public and private school teachers is widening,” Briones told reporters.

“Some private schools are even closing because they can’t catch up, they are losing teachers especially the very good ones,” she said.

She said some private school teachers in towns outside Metro Manila receive a meager income of P6,000 or three times less than what public school teachers get.